DeSoto Road Widening Concerns Neighbors

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(Olive Branch, MS) In her 31 years in DeSoto County, Norma Rush has seen lots of changes, ”In my area there were 26 houses. Now there are hundreds, so it’s nothing like when I moved out here.”

Now she’s bracing for even more change.

Later this year, Olive Branch will widen Craft Road from Goodman all the way up to 78, making neighbors along it a little concerned about traffic and being able to get in and our of their neighborhoods.

But that’s minor, compared to the makeover coming to several north-south arteries as I-269 makes its way across DeSoto County.

”Craft Road, Laughter Road, some of these roads are gonna have a lot of interstate traffic feeding into them,” said DeSoto County Supervisor Mark Gardner.

They’re bound to turn rural areas into higher-traffic suburban neighborhoods, as roads expand to take on extra traffic.

”We may have to widen the beds on the sides of the roads, we may have to widen the roads, put in turn lanes, there’s a whole lot of things to consider” Gardner explained.

And while Norma Rush isn’t thrilled about the idea, she knows it’s coming, and says he and he neighbors need to plan for the inevitable, ”Never be in a hurry when you’re trying to go anywhere, or leave extra early.”

The Olive Branch Craft Road project will get underway in about a year, and county leaders say other similar projects could get underway about that same time.

The completion of the I-269 project is expected in 2017, or since the project is ahead of schedule, even sooner.

1 Comment

KITKATCEO

Widen craft road & you have to tear into the farm fields & some of the wooded areas…by doing that you tear up the wild life habitat forcing them out into the open more. We’ve already got Coyotes running around Southaven Kroger, I’d hate to see the Bobcats that are known to live along Craft Rd start hanging around the OB shopping plazas.